Venezuela tops list of the most painful economies in which to live and work,
according to Bloomberg data

Misery will be most acute this year in Venezuela, Argentina, South Africa, Ukraine and Greece – the five most painful economies in which to live and work, according to Bloomberg's 'misery index' for 2015.

Rising unemployment coupled with high inflation will hit these countries hardest, the financial services firm said.

Venezuela, which tops the list, recently entered a recession, and its economy is expected to shrink by 7pc this year, according to data from the International Monetary Fund.

The country has the highest annual rate of inflation in the Americas at 63.6pc. The collapse in world oil prices has left the country short of dollars needed to import many basic goods.

The dire shortage of basic goods in Venezuela last week prompted neighbour Trinidad & Tobago to offer swapping tissue paper for oil. In Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves, citizens are lining up outside supermarkets for hours seeking a bag of clothing detergent, toilet paper or cooking oil.

Number two in the misery rankings, Argentina's economy contracted 1.5pc last year and will shrink 1.4pc this year before growing 2.6 per cent in 2016, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

South America’s second-largest economy shrunk following a default in July, the culmination of years of legal battles with creditors. Seeking to preserve international reserves that fell to an eight-year low last April, the Argentinian government increased limits on imports, making it harder for manufacturers to obtain supplies.

Third-placed South Africa is still struggling to recover from a recession that hit the country in 2009. The country recently downgraded its growth expectations for 2015 to 2pc, from the 2.5pc it forecast in October. Electricity blackouts are now a daily reality and expected to continue for the next three years.

Unemployment will climb to 9.5pc in Ukraine this year from 8.9pc in the third quarter of 2014, the survey data suggested. Inflation is projected to rise at a 17.5pc pace in 2015, compared with the 24.9pc rate in December.

Ukrainian consumers are therefore set to be the fourth-saddest among 51 economies based on forecasts for the misery measure. However, it is an improvement on 2014, when the embattled country came second in the misery-index readings.

Fighting has intensified in Ukraine in the past year

Greece is 5th, Spain is 6th, Portugal is 10th and Italy is 11th in this year's ranking.

Greece's public debt is now equal to 177pc of GDP, the highest level in the eurozone. The country has an eye-wateringly high unemployment rate of 25.8pc. More than half of Greece’s 15 to 24 year olds are out of work.

The country is on the brink of leaving the eurozone, and the Greek government must pay the IMF €1.5bn in a series of deadlines this month, starting with €300m as soon as this Friday.

Italy's public debt has jumped from 116pc to 133pc of GDPin three years. The youth jobless rate is 44pc. Meanwhile Italian GDP has fallen almost 10pc in six years. Italy's industrial production has dropped back to the levels of 1980.

The 51 economies in Bloomberg's misery index average GDP per capita of $31,079.